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Cultural Sustainability

Operational Impact Grants for Small Arts Organizations

Applications Open October 30

Cultural Sustainability: Operational Impact Grants for Small Arts Organizations is a new grant program offered by the six U.S. Regional Arts Organizations (USRAOs) in partnership with The Wallace Foundation. It provides general operating support to small, culturally driven arts organizations with annual operating expenses under $500,000.

Cultural Sustainability acknowledges the invaluable contributions arts and cultural organizations make in our communities and the broader cultural landscape. This pilot program will endeavor to support and understand how small, community-based arts organizations can advance their sustainability and well-being.

Through operational grants, capacity building, and cohort learning, Cultural Sustainability will support culturally driven organizations with resources to expand their practices and increase arts engagement in their communities. 

To better serve groups that may face barriers with other grant programs, this initiative also expands the types of operational structures eligible for support to include nonprofits as well as art-centric businesses.

M-AAA expects to grant a total of $1,100,00 in the region,  through 22 organizational grants of $50,000 each. 

Applications open October 30, 2024, for M-AAA’s six state region of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

 

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Join Our Roundtables

M-AAA is hosting two roundtable sessions to help inform, define, and shape this new grant program in our six-state region. 

Sign up below to share your insight and input. 

Young woman of color places her handprint on a wall of handprints in blue, red, yellow, and green paint colors.

Who Cultural Sustainability is for

Cultural Sustainability invests in culturally driven organizations and businesses with annual operating expenses under $500,000: Men and women of color and diverse heritage dance hip hop in a public square outdoors with a mural behind them.

  • Located within the M-AAA Mid-America six-state region of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas
  • Nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations; fiscally sponsored artist or ensemble organizations; art-centered business entities (LLC, Partnership, Benefit Corporation, etc.); state or federally recognized tribal governments 
  • Have at least three years of arts programming. The years of activity do not need to be consecutive or connected to the date of formation/incorporation. 
  • Organizations that predominantly serve Black, Latine, Asian, Arab, Indigenous, Pacific Islander, and/or Caribbean communities, or another underserved community
  • Founded by and for a community of color or another underserved community

Successful applicants will help diversify M-AAA’s historical grantmaking including:

  • Organizations led by people of color or members of other underrepresented communities, either artistically or administratively
  • First-time applicants or those who have received few or no grants from M-AAA
  • Organizations with new leadership in key roles

Single artist sole proprietorships are not eligible for this initiative. 

 

What Cultural Sustainability Provides

  • $50,000 nonmatching operational grants 
  • Opportunity to regularly connect and learn with fellow culturally driven organizations and businesses
  • Opportunity to develop innovative strategies to catalyze broad impact
  • Opportunity to inform equitable grantmaking practices and processes
  • One-on-one consultations and cohort workshops with experts in evaluation and data collection 

Woman of color wearing a brimmed hat assists a child making pottery in an outdoor setting.

Timeline

  • Applications open October 30, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. CT
  • Applications close January 10, 2025 at 5:00  p.m. CT
  • Awards for Cultural Sustainability: Operational Impact Grants for Small Arts Organizations made April 2025 
  • Public announcement April 2025

The Technical Assistance Learning Cycles will occur in 3-month cycles with a 1-month break at the end of each cycle.

  • Cycle 1: May 2025–July 2025
  • Cycle 2: September–November 2025
  • Cycle 3: January 2026–April 2026

About Cultural Sustainability: Operational Impact Grants for Small Arts Organizations

Cultural Sustainability is part of The Wallace Foundation’s Advancing Well-Being in the Arts initiative, which funds arts organizations rooted in communities of color to advance their well-being, enhance understanding of their contributions to community, and ultimately help to build a more equitable and sustainable arts ecosystem.

Cultural Sustainability grants will be administered by each of the USRAOs within their individual, multistate regions. 

The USRAOs are a national collective of place-based nonprofit arts service organizations comprising Arts Midwest, Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA), Mid Atlantic Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), South Arts, and the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF). Each USRAO has developed a granting program and guidelines for its region. In total, 100+ Cultural Sustainability grants will be given out nationwide, with 22 grants awarded in M-AAA’s six-state region of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. 

 

Wallace Foundation logoUS RAO Regional Arts Organizations logoMid-America Arts Alliance logo

Program Description

Full program description coming soon after community feedback.

Join Our Roundtables

M-AAA is hosting two roundtable sessions to help inform, define, and shape this new grant program in our six-state region. 

Sign up below to share your insight and input.

Eligibility

Full eligibility guidelines coming soon after community feedback.

Join Our Roundtables

M-AAA is hosting two roundtable sessions to help inform, define, and shape this new grant program in our six-state region. 

Sign up below to share your insight and input.

How to Apply

Application information will be announced on October 30, 2024.

Have Questions?

For questions, please contact us at culturalsustainability@maaa.org.

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